The supercharging of internal combustion engines consists of increasing the inlet pressure to the engine cylinders so as to obtain an improved charge to the cylinders and hence a higher effective pressure, resulting in an increase of power for the same speed. While supercharging advantageously improves air pressure in the cylinders, it disadvantageously increases the air temperature in the cylinders.
In a supercharged internal combustion engine, a charge air cooler is advantageously arranged downstream of the supercharger, such as a turbocharger, to decrease the temperature of air introduced into the engine from the turbocharger. The decreased air temperature decreases the occurrence of knocking, even when a high compression ratio is employed. Furthermore, the air density is increased and thus the volumetric efficiency is increased. Due to the high compression ratio and high volumetric efficiency, an increased engine power is obtained, which is the intrinsic object of employing a supercharged system.
In addition to a charge air cooler, a supercharged internal combustion engine includes a conventional coolant radiator that prevents the engine from overheating. The coolant radiator and the charge air cooler operate similarly, the main difference being that the coolant radiator employs a liquid coolant as a heat exchange fluid while the charge air cooler employs compressed gas as the heat exchange fluid. Typically the radiator and charge air cooler have manifolds or tanks on opposite sides of a heat exchange core. These manifolds direct the heat exchange fluid into cooling tubes in the heat exchange core. Air flows between the cooling tubes to cool the heat exchange fluid when the vehicle moves in a forward direction or when a fan is turned on.
Shown in FIG. 1 is a conventional design of a coolant radiator/charge air cooler system I 0. The system includes a charge air cooler 12 having a cooler core 14 connected between a pair of cooler manifolds 16. Likewise, a coolant radiator 18 includes a radiator core 20 connected between a pair of radiator side tanks 22.
When the vehicle travels forward, or when a fan (not shown) is turned on, air passes through the charge air cooler core 14 and the radiator core 20 to cool the heat exchange fluids in the cores. However, the charge air cooler 12 typically is positioned in front of the coolant radiator 18 and is typically smaller than the coolant radiator so that the cooler manifolds 16 block a portion of the radiator core 20, thereby decreasing the flow of cooling air through the radiator core. By blocking some of the air through the radiator core the charge air cooler prevents the coolant radiator from operating at optimum efficiency.
The charge air cooler and coolant radiator are supported by a support structure 24. The support structure includes top and bottom horizontal support channels 26 connected between left and right vertical side tanks 22. The support structure also includes structural cross members 30 extending between opposite corners of the support structure. The charge air cooler 12 is attached to the support structure via side brackets 32. In addition to adding undesirable weight to the system, a portion of support structure blocks a portion of the radiator core, thereby further decreasing coolant radiator efficiency.